


Closer

by Carvingknife



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Boy lived in the desert for a year, Eventual Sexual Content, M/M, Mild inebriation, Multi, Neutral pronouns for Pidge, Slow Burn, Socially Awkward Keith, he tries his best
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-16
Updated: 2017-03-01
Packaged: 2018-09-24 19:36:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 17,688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9782123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Carvingknife/pseuds/Carvingknife
Summary: Keith understood that he was expected to bond with the other paladins, but he never expected Hunk and Lance to edge their way in as far as they did. Enemies, he could handle, but emotions. . . not so much. He entertained the option of ignoring the way his heart pounded all together, but one inebriated slip-up later, and the walls began to crumble. Suddenly, Lance is in trouble and Keith has to put confronting his feelings on hold in order to work with Hunk to get him back.





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This is the first chapter of my contribution to [ The Primary Big Bang](http://voltronbigbang.tumblr.com/)! 
> 
> I'm going to be flying out for Katsu tomorrow, so I'll try to get the second chapter up before I get on my flight. Daily updates will start as soon as I get back on the 20th, so look forward to that! 
> 
> A big thank you to my artists whose art will be featured throughout the fic starting in chapter 3!  
> [Sting ](http://stingdragon.tumblr.com)  
> [Hayden ](http://6oys.tumblr.com)
> 
> And another big thank you to my Beta!  
> [Ry ](http://Arkcry.tumblr.com)

Keith liked to believe that he had a pretty good handle on the increasingly difficult situations that were suddenly thrown his way. Shuttled into space by an ancient robotic alien lion? Difficult to digest, but manageable. Recruited into a super exclusive club designed to protect the universe from evil? That’s fair. Forcibly cuddled by extremely affectionate aliens that barely made it past his knees? Now,  _ that _ was weird, but he still managed to accept what was happening at face value and move on with his life. Out of all of the difficult changes that Keith has had to wrap his mind around, there was only one thing that he still couldn’t figure out.

What on Earth was Lance’s deal? 

Keith never claimed to be good with people in general, but he was pretty confident that he got along with everyone else in the castle just fine. Lance, on the other hand, was almost always challenging him, always rushing in for a fight with the claim that they were “rivals! You know, Lance and Keith, neck in neck!” Sometimes it was just. . . overwhelming.

“How the quiznak is anyone supposed to get any extra training in when you’re hogging the training deck all day?”

Keith paused after taking down a final gladiatorbot, wiping a line of sweat off his brow. “You could have said something, Lance. I can’t exactly read minds.”

“I shouldn’t have to!” Lance barked, throwing his hands in the air. “Who spends six hours straight training on  _ top _ of what Allura has us doing every day?! Give it a rest!”

Keith was usually pretty calm, all things considered, but boy, did Lance know how to push his buttons. “Well, maybe if  _ you _ trained a bit more, you’d be better at hand to hand combat!”

“I can never get the chance with  _ you _ monopolising the gladiatorbots every chance you get,” Lance bit back, suddenly in Keith’s face. Keith stared back at Lance, irritation gnawing at him as he searched for a proper retort. 

“Fine!” the red paladin snapped instead, tossing his bayard into his bag and storming towards the exit. “It’s all yours, your highness!”

The only response Keith heard was an echoed, “Fine!” before the doors shut behind him. He stomped down the corridor, fuming and annoyed that he let Lance get to him  _ again _ . Now, he was riled up with no way to let off steam. Great.

Keith didn’t make it far down the hallway before he heard heavy footsteps echoing his own. He stopped and took a couple deep breaths to steady his aggravation before Hunk stepped out from around the corner. 

“Hey, man!” he beamed. “How’s it going?”

“Fine,” Keith lied. “It’s fine. Everything’s fine” 

“Really?” Hunk’s smile faltered, eyebrows knitting together with concern. “You don’t seem fine.” 

Keith rubbed his temples in exasperation. Of course. He never actually thought he’d be able to pull one past Hunk. The guy could read you minutes after meeting you for the first time. Either that or Keith was just extremely transparent. It was probably a mixture of both. 

Hunk placed his hand on Keith’s shoulder when he gave no response. “Lemme guess, it was Lance again?”

“Yeah,” Keith nodded, dropping his hands. Hunk squeezed his shoulder momentarily, and Keith instantly relaxed. It was like placing a cold compress on a headache; soothing and welcome and how  _ does _ he do that?? 

“Don’t worry about it too much,” Hunk assuaged. “Lance can be pretty abrasive without realizing it and when he gets fired up, he kinda has a hard time controlling his mouth. It’s gotten us into a  _ lot _ of trouble in the past.” Hunk paused for a moment, looking slightly wistful, “Trust me on that one.”

Keith snorted, feeling a bit better already. “Thanks, big guy. I’ll keep that in mind.” 

“Anytime,” Hunk said, patting Keith on the shoulder briefly before heading off in the opposite direction. “Also, if you ever need someone to drag him away, just let me know. It wouldn’t be the first time.” 

Keith smiled, watching Hunk turn the corner before returning to his own thoughts. He was considerably calmer now, but felt that he still needed a moment to recollect himself. With the training deck now occupied, there was only one other place where he could effectively cool off. 

Keith’s lion was a silent and comforting force. Allura had said that they should be able to bond and form a strong connection with their lions, and Keith believed that he was beginning to understand. He felt her presence buzz around him as he climbed into the cockpit, settling into a low hum that he always found comforting.

“Hey, Red. How’s it going?” Keith was pretty confident that she understood him based off of the pulse of energy he sensed in his chest. A confirmation of sorts. It was followed by a soft rumble that Keith took to be concern. 

“It’s nothing to worry about,” he consoled her, lounging a bit in the cockpit and closing his eyes to better concentrate on her responses. “Just got into another stupid argument with Lance.” She shot back a quick acknowledgment before settling back into the comforting hum. Keith sighed. If he had traveled back in time and told his old self a year ago that he would have an easier time connecting with a giant robot lion than his own human teammates. . . he actually wouldn’t be all that surprised. He was goal driven and talented, and the Garrison admired him for that, but that was all he had focused on. Machines were easy. Fighting was easy. People? Not so much. Especially the kind of people with a bold personality and a quick tongue like Lance. He was at least grateful that someone as soft and encouraging as Hunk existed to smooth the edges of both parties involved. 

“Hey, you awake?”

Keith jumped, knocking himself out of his seat and onto the floor. Someone sniggered behind him. 

“Pidge?”

“Sorry, sorry,” Pidge hid their laughter behind their hand. “Hunk told me that I could probably find you here.” 

Keith blinked up at them from the ground. Did he tell Hunk where he was going to be? Or did he just  _ know _ ? 

“Allura gave me permission to add a few upgrades to the other lions,” Pidge continued without waiting for a response from Keith. “I figured I’d start with Red seeing as she’s the most similar to Green, but I’m supposed to get clearance from you first.” 

“Wait, you’re actually  _ asking _ before you start messing with something?” Keith said in response, raising a brow incredulously. 

Pidge snorted. “You got me there. I can’t do anything to the lions without their permission, which means I need cooperation from their paladins.” They paused, adjusting their glasses with one hand and grinning mischievously. “That means you.”

Keith got up, resting his hand on his lion’s control panel and receiving an affirmative buzz. “Knock yourself out. Just. . . don’t break anything.”

“You wound me, Keith,” Pidge clutched their chest in mock pain. “I am nothing if not careful with any and all electronics and machines.”

“Really? I seem to recall hearing about you smashing your bayard into the energy control panel at some point?”

“That was  _ one _ time,” Pidge waved a hand in the air flippantly as they kneeled to open a panel below the controls. “Besides,  _ that _ was an emergency and entirely out of my control.”

Keith shook his head, the corners of his lips turning upwards into a half smile. He decided to leave Pidge to whatever shenanigans they had planned, and turned to head for the exit. 

“Hey, Keith!” Pidge called for him before he was out of sight. Keith paused and watched Pidge pop out from beneath the controls, wrinkling their nose at him. “You smell like sweat.”

Keith cocked his head to the side and pulled the neck of his shirt up to his nose. 

Huh.

They were right. 


	2. Chapter Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My flight boards soon, but here's the second chapter! See you in four days!

A couple of days passed, and Keith had already pushed the incident with Lance out of his mind. Arguing with Lance was nothing new, and dwelling on each little dispute was counterproductive. Besides, it was bound to happen again at any given moment. 

It was late in the afternoon (or at least he assumed it was; time is difficult in space) when Keith headed towards the kitchen, planning on grabbing a snack and some water before deciding whether or not he wanted to work in some extra agility training. He slowed as he got closer to the door, realizing that he could hear people talking from inside. 

“Lance.”

Keith paused, Shiro’s stern voice carrying into the hallway. He hesitated a moment before turning away, deciding that he didn’t want to walk into whatever talking-to Lance was getting this time.

“I’m not going to make an effort until Keith stops acting like he’s so much better than all of us,” Lance retorted, followed by an exasperated sigh that had to come from Shiro. “I’ll get along with him when HE admits that I’m the better pilot.”

Keith stopped. 

“Lance,” Shiro sighed again. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re not.” 

“Are you KIDDING me?” There was a loud, solid bang, as if Lance had slammed his hands on the table. “He gave up! He had everything going for him and he just left! How does that make him a better pilot?” 

Keith covered his mouth to hide the shocked noise that threatened to escape. Was that really what Lance thought? That he gave up?

“I don’t know what happened, but I know Keith,” Shiro responded gently. “He worked hard to get to where he was at the Garrison, and I don’t think you fully understand how many odds he had stacked against him.”

There was a beat, followed by a whisper that Keith could not discern. He moved closer, sliding his back down the wall to make himself smaller and harder to discover. 

“You’ll have to ask him.” Shiro’s answer to Lance’s unheard question. “Besides that, I can’t say that he’s the better pilot either.” 

Lance made a series of confused noises that Keith was pretty sure contained no actual words.

“No no, Shiro’s right.” Allura? Was she always in the room?

“You need to understand,” she continued, “that the main function of Voltron is to work as a team. You all have your strengths. Your weaknesses. Not one of you can be considered ‘better’ than the others. When the team can’t connect. . .”

“We’re screwed,” Lance interjected with muffled words, as if he were resting his face in his hands. “I know, I know. We’ve been over this, but what am I supposed to do? I’m only  _ half _ of the problem.”

“You need to make an effort,” Shiro advised. “Keith is not unreasonable if you give him a chance.”

Pause.

No response.

“Lance,” Allura spoke softly, “I never told you what it means to pilot the Blue Lion, did I?” Another pause as she waited for a wordless response. “Much like the human body, the legs are important for support. While the Yellow Lion is kindness and caring, the Blue Lion is trust and loyalty. We  _ need _ you, Lance. The Green and Red Lions possess instinct and intellect. The Black Lion; leadership, and the Yellow Lion; protection. These are all very important aspects and need not be looked down on, but  _ you _ are ultimately what connects them all together. Voltron is  _ nothing _ without trust in one another. Do you understand? Neither of you can harbor such hatred for eachother and expect success in battle.”

“I don’t,” Lance croaked. He cleared his throat. “I don’t hate him. If anything, I respect him for what he can do, but I can’t help but despise him for throwing it away. Catching up to him was always my goal at the Garrison, but he never gave me a chance to prove that I could be as good as him. Even now, I constantly feel like he’s overshadowing me. We can’t even use the training room at the same time. It’s infuriating.

“And yeah,” Lance exhaled, “I might have a small problem with running my mouth when I’m angry, but I promise, I’ll try. We both deserve better from each other.” 

“Thank you, Lance,” Keith could hear the smile in Shiro’s voice. “I’m actually pretty proud of you right now.” 

Keith decided that he had eavesdropped enough for one day, and discretely removed himself from the floor to wander off in the opposite direction. He chewed on the inside of his cheek as he walked, wondering when their pseudo-rivalry had gotten so out of hand. He thought back to his and Lance’s last encounter and wanted to smack himself for how childish he had acted. He wasn’t used to relying on or forming any sort of bond with other people. Shiro was the only one that he could really consider a friend, and he was always okay with that. Now, things have changed. This wasn’t the Garrison. This wasn’t the desert. The more he thought about it, the more Keith realized that he was  _ tired _ of being alone. He just had no idea how to fix it.

Keith rounded a corner and found himself at the training deck. Figuring that a little work out might help clear his head, he pulled out his bayard and activated training level one. The gladiatorbot sprang to life and Keith was quick to take it out with two swift swipes down and then up.

“Activate training level two.” The next gladiatorbot got into position just as Keith heard the door behind him open. He quickly cut the robot down before sparing a glance at the entrance where Lance stood, a clearly contemplative look on his face. 

“Continue to training level three?” the computer’s disembodied voice queried. Lance made a choice, and turned to leave, allowing Keith to continue practice without confrontation. 

“Cancel training.” Keith called out, and then, “Lance!”

The other stopped, and slowly turned, confusion clear on his face. Keith set his bayard aside and gestured for Lance to join him. He did, although warily. Keith almost snorted.

“Spar with me,” he explained. “I could use a partner with a little sentience. Robots can get stiff and boring.”

Lance scoffed. “Are you  _ sure _ you’re ready for this?”

Keith pinned him in seconds.

“OW! Not fair, I wasn’t ready!”

Keith waited until he got up. “Are you ready now?”

“Yes!”

In moments, Lance was on the ground. He covered his face in frustration. 

“Here,” Keith offered him his hand. “Your center of balance is off. It’s why you’re so easy to knock over.”

“I don’t recall asking for your input,” Lance snapped, slapping a hand over his mouth to hold back his snarky comments. Keith held back a smirk.

“C’mon, I’ll help you.” 

Keith felt that it was surprising when Lance actually took his hand, but not nearly as much as when he allowed Keith to position his body in a way that lowered his center and grounded his feet. Keith gave Lance an experimental shove in the chest and nodded in satisfaction when Lance’s feet remained planted on the ground. 

“Let’s go again.” 

They continued like this for hours, Keith interrupting every once in awhile to dish out basic pointers that Lance would follow in earnest. Keith was impressed at Lance’s natural level of agility and stamina and how quickly he picked up on the things that he learned just moments ago. 

At the two hour mark, Keith found himself pinned flat on the ground for the first time since they started. Lance threw his hands in the air enthusiastically, laughing and calling out in triumph. After Keith managed to catch his breath, he couldn’t help but laugh along with him. 

He was too busy to notice Lance staring at him in awe. Who knew that Keith could sound so happy? It took a split second for Lance to decide that maybe this wasn’t such a lost cause. Maybe they could do this. As long as they did it together. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My partners for [ The Primary Big Bang](http://voltronbigbang.tumblr.com/): 
> 
> Artists  
> [Sting ](http://stingdragon.tumblr.com)  
> [Hayden ](http://6oys.tumblr.com)
> 
> Beta  
> [Ry ](http://Arkcry.tumblr.com)


	3. Chapter Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that I'm super late posting. I'm waiting on a sketch for this chapter from one of my artists. I'll add it in as soon as I get it!
> 
> Edit: Now featuring [Sting's ](http://stingdragon.tumblr.com) art thatcan be found [here!](http://stingdragon.tumblr.com/post/157705354699/art-for-acidpumpkins-wonderful-fic-closer-and)

Sparring with Lance between drills and answering distress signals became a regular thing that Keith actually started to look forward to. Lance was unpredictable, switching up his fighting style mid-fight in a way that seemed almost effortless. When Keith questioned where he learned how to transition so quickly, Lance stared back at him with a look of confusion that suggested that he had no idea that he was doing it. Unbelievable. At least it was never boring.

It wasn’t long until Hunk started to join them, adding in a new element entirely. His strength was killer, and when he planted his feet, Hunk’s balance was unreal. Most of their matches ended up turning into seeing who could knock Hunk off his feet, with Keith and Lance achieving this feat only about 50% of the time before calling it quits for the day.

Shiro sat in on a few of their sparring matches, observing from the sidelines with a soft smile on his face. After one match, he pulled Keith aside to comment on how well they seemed to be getting along.

“I’m glad you’re starting to connect with the other paladins,” he said, ruffling Keith’s hair fondly with his hand. “I was starting to worry about you, but it looks like you’re loosening up a bit.”

Keith ducked his head with a sheepish grin, smoothing out his disheveled hair. “I’m probably more surprised than you are.”

“I never said I was surprised,” Shiro shrugged. “I had complete confidence in you.”

Keith responded with a soft, “Oh.” Shiro chuckled.

He thought about their conversation after they had parted ways and came to an obvious realization.

“I’m. . . actually having fun?”

 

Eventually, at Shiro’s suggestion, they moved on to alternating sparring and strength training. Most of what they found in the adjacent weight room was pretty similar to what they were used to on Earth, though there were one or two terrifying looking machines that the paladins all steered clear of.

“C’mon Keith! Are you even trying?”

Keith gritted his teeth, pushing the metal bar away from his chest shakily and biting back a retort that might break his concentration. As soon as he slipped the bar back into place, he let his arms fall to his sides like limp noodles. He might have overdone it just a little, but he definitely had Lance’s “alternative encouragement” to blame for that.

“You didn’t even finish the last set, bro,” Lance shook his head, making a “tsk” noise every time his head changed directions.

“Alright, then,” Keith responded, sitting up and gesturing at the bench press. “Let’s see you do it.”

“Everyone knows that I don’t need to rely on brute strength to win in a fight,” Lance countered, crossing his arms and then making a show of examining his nails.

Keith whistled low. “Wow, did you hear that, Hunk?”

“I definitely did,” Hunk said, pausing his arm curls and suppressing a smile as he focused on Lance. “Is there something wrong with ‘brute strength’?”

“No!” Lance backpedaled. “I didn’t mean you! C’mon, everyone knows that I would _never_ . . . I mean. . . Buddy, you _know_ me.”

“I don’t know, man, I feel kinda hurt,” Hunk teased, placing a hand over his chest in mock pain.

“You hear that? He’s hurt,” Keith shook his head. “I can’t believe you’d do such a thing to _Hunk_ of all people. For shame.”

Lance let out a few disjointed syllables, curling his fingers in Keith’s direction before slapping a hand over his mouth to bite back whatever comment he was about to say. Keith and Hunk shared a moment of eye contact before bursting into laughter, both fully aware that Shiro had instructed Lance to watch his mouth. Lance pouted for a moment before a smirk slowly grew on his face.

“Hey, Hunk. Why don’t you take a turn?” Keith did not miss the silent _show Keith how it’s done_ tacked on to the end of Lance’s question.

Hunk looked at Lance skeptically, “I would need Allura or Shiro. . .”

“Don’t worry about that, both Keith and I can spot for you,” Lance’s smirk turned into a grin, and Keith briefly wondered what he meant by “both”.

He didn’t have to wonder for long. After Hunk agreed, he and Lance starting adding more weight to the bar. . . and then they started adding more weight. . . and then they added even more. Keith looked at the bar with wide eyes as Hunk got into position on the bench. He counted nearly 500 pounds of weight.

“Watch this,” Lance whispered, hands on the bar while Hunk started his first set.

“Oh my god,” Keith said under his breath as he watched the bar rise and fall slowly, the muscles in Hunk’s arms and chest barely straining under the weight. “No way.”

“He could bench both of us at the same time if he really wanted to,” Lance spoke low into Keith’s ear. “He’s tossed me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes a few times, too. Which is always pretty fun depending on the situation.”

It took a moment for the insinuation to sink in, and when it did, Keith felt his face grow warm.

“You know,” Hunk cautioned as soon as he finished his tenth rep, “I _can_ hear you down here.”

“Sorry, sorry,” Lance held up his hands in defeat, the beginnings of laughter clear in his voice. “I wanted to see the look on Keith's face. You’re so red, man. You doing okay?”

“Uh, yeah,” Keith coughed, suddenly feeling a little out of place. “I think I’m gonna call it quits for the day.” He started grabbing his things.

“You sure?” Hunk asked, concern written all over his face.

“Yeah,” Keith nodded, voicing a short goodbye, and making a hasty retreat.

“Did you really have to do that?” Hunk’s voice echoed into the hallway followed by an amused apology from Lance before the door slid closed behind him.

Keith sighed, making a beeline for the hangars. He wasn’t sure where to go from here and he figured that hanging out with Red might help clear his jumbled thoughts. He was really starting to enjoy all of the time he spent with the other two, despite Lance’s need to one up him every chance that he got. Infuriating as it was, Keith was beginning to find it kinda amusing. Hunk on the other hand, was just too wonderful for words. He had never met someone so in tune with the people around him, and Keith found himself opening up more and more the longer Hunk was around.

But what on Earth was _that_?

He paused his thoughts long enough to focus on climbing into Red’s cockpit, resting both hands over his face in slight agitation. Why did he feel so embarrassed after that last interaction? It had to be because of what Lance said. He always knew that Hunk and Lance were close, but he never really knew _how_ close. Did he even _want_ to know how close? What if he did? He wasn’t bothered by the idea that they could be together, it definitely made sense once you thought about it. Then what was this confliction he was feeling? Maybe he was realizing that he really didn’t know anything about either of them while they knew _everything_ about each other. Keith _liked_ them. He didn’t want to feel like just teammates anymore. It worked for the Garrison, but this was way different. What if he just wanted to spend more time with them? What did that even _mean_?  

He felt the comforting buzz of the red lion that he had recently started to think of as a cat’s purr. Her mere presence started to soothe away a bit of his rainstorm of confusion. “What do you think?” Keith spoke out loud. “Should I try to spend time with them outside of our sparring matches?”

“Yes.”

Keith jumped, letting out a startled yelp and catching himself before he could tumble to the ground.

“Aw, man. I was hoping you’d fall again.”

“Pidge! You need to stop doing that!”

“Sorry, Keith,” Pidge popped out from the console that they had removed from the floor, dusting themself off in the process. “I didn’t notice you come in until you said something and I just couldn’t _not_.”

“Ha ha.” Keith settled back into the chair, before jumping up again. “Wait, did you hear me?”

“Yeah, and I said yes, you should.”

“How do you even know what I was talking about?”

“C’mon Keith,” Pidge rolled their eyes. “It’s so obvious that you have some sort of crush on Hunk. . . or Lance. . . maybe even both.”

“It’s _not_ a crush,” Keith grumbled.

“Whatever,” Pidge shrugged. “The point being, it’s not weird for you to want to spend time with them outside of training. Hell, it might even be considered. . . gasp! . . . _normal_.”

Keith snorted, raising his hands in defeat. “Alright, fine. You have a point.”

“Of course I do,” they smiled smugly. “Anyway, while you’re here, I wanna show you the modifications I’ve been working on.”

“Yeah,” Keith replied, grateful for the change in topic. “Of course”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My partners for [ The Primary Big Bang](http://voltronbigbang.tumblr.com/): 
> 
> Artists  
> [Sting ](http://stingdragon.tumblr.com)  
> [Hayden ](http://6oys.tumblr.com)
> 
> Beta  
> [Ry ](http://Arkcry.tumblr.com)


	4. Chapter Four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, sorry. I'm still waiting on one of my artists, so you'll have to bear with me. OTL
> 
> I'll still be updating the chapters for now and then adding the links in later as soon as I receive them.
> 
> UPDATE: Art has been added! This chapter features [Sting's ](http://stingdragon.tumblr.com)  
> art that can be found [here ](http://stingdragon.tumblr.com/post/157639602524/art-for-acidpumpkins-wonderful-fic-closer-and) and [here! ](http://stingdragon.tumblr.com/post/157705354699/art-for-acidpumpkins-wonderful-fic-closer-and)  
> 

Keith never spent time in the common area. He prefered to spend a majority of his downtime alone, usually in his room or getting better acquainted with Red. He found it easier to concentrate with no external noise to distract him from whatever small task he needed to accomplish. Or so he thought.

Keith was bored. Allura had landed the castle on a planet inhabited by nothing but large bug-like creatures and instructed them to avoid overloading the electrical system while she, Pidge, and Coran performed a few much-needed updates to the castle’s defences. That meant that the training deck was off limits.

“Just relax for a while,” Allura had said. “The clouded atmosphere on this planet will be enough to keep us hidden long enough to perform the necessary updates.”

“Don’t go outside though. Unless you want your squishy human lungs to be ripped apart by the natural chemicals in the air,” Coran added, sweeping an arm in the direction of the doors for emphasis. “Bad news out there. There’s a reason why this planet is mostly empty, so don’t even think about it!”

By the first hour mark, Keith was already bored out of his mind. He soon found himself meandering down the hall towards the designated common area where he spotted Hunk bent over a gutted machine that Keith had never seen before.

He stood leaning over the back of the couches watching Hunk examine a mess of wires, tongue poking out of the side of his mouth in concentration.  Several minutes passed before he realized that he should say something

“Um.”

_Wow, Keith. Good conversation starter._

Hunk glanced up at the sound, smiling as soon as he saw who it was. “Hey, buddy. What’s up?”

“What’s that thing that you’re messing with?” Keith asked, a little relieved that Hunk didn’t comment on his eloquent speech patterns.

“I have no idea,” Hunk shrugged in response. “I found it broken down in the kitchen, and I asked Coran what it was. He said that it wasn’t necessary so of _course_ that means that it’s probably really important.”

Keith snorted, stifling a chuckle behind his hand. “Do you want some help with anything?”

“Yeah!” Hunk’s smile brightened and Keith suddenly felt like he could melt right then and there.

“I gave up on trying to open this weird lock mechanism,” Hunk explained, handing Keith a medium sized box after he settled in beside him. “It’s got a bunch of symbols that need to be entered in a specific order. I can get it to show me the code, but there’s so many and it flashes by so fast that I can’t get it right. Think you could take a stab at it?”

Keith turned the box around in his hands, revealing a set of thirty buttons etched with Altean symbols that he’s seen before around the ship. “Sure, why not?”

Hunk showed him how to reveal the code, which flashed by via hologram above the container, and went back to concentrating on untangling the wire disaster that he had found shoved in the back of the machine.

After the hologram disappeared, Keith set to work typing in the code. Some of the buttons were beginning to fade, but he was pretty sure that he could figure out what they were supposed to be based off what was left. After a few minutes of examining the options and punching in the code, Keith heard a soft click as the top of the box released itself. He pulled the pieces apart and held them out to a stunned Hunk.

“Oh my god, Keith!” Hunk exclaimed in absolute awe. “There were like fifty symbols in that sequence and you got it on the _first_ try! That’s amazing!”

Keith could feel his face getting hot and hoped that it didn’t show. “I. . . um, I have a pretty good memory.”

“I’ll say! I spent an hour on that thing and had to put it down, this is so great, man. I could kiss you.”

Okay, _now_ Keith was sure that his face was noticeably red. Hunk reached in and pulled out a small piece of tech from inside the box, scrutinizing it for a moment before handing it back to Keith.

“What is it?”

“I think it’s a battery? It looks like it’s run off it’s own tiny crystal shard, but the wires that connect it to the machine are corroded,” Hunk replied. “If you want to try pulling them out, we can replace them with this.” Hunk gestured to the mess that he had been methodically pulling apart this entire time.

Keith tugged on a wire and it snapped off in his hand. “I guess this is what happens when things go unused for ten thousand years,” he mumbled.

“Hunk!”

Keith looked up, startled by the sudden intrusion and nearly dropping the small piece of tech on the floor. Lance stood in the entry with a blanket wrapped around his shoulders and a giant grin plastered on his face.

“Hunk!” Lance repeated, “You gotta come see this!”

“Gimme a second, man.” Hunk barely glanced up from the confusing tangle of wires, finally picking one and working on pulling it free.

“It’s raining.”

Hunk paused at this, snapping his head up to look at his best friend. They shared a look, making Keith feel like an intruder to their wordless conversation. He glanced between the two, trying to understand why Lance seemed so excited about a little rain and why Hunk seemed to share that enthusiasm.

Not surprisingly, Keith didn’t come to any conclusions by the time Hunk silently pushed his work aside and stood to follow Lance. Keith frowned, letting the piece that he was working on fall into his lap. He couldn’t help but feel disappointed. Whatever connection he had opened up with Hunk was so easily overshadowed by the mere presence of Lance. Keith didn’t blame either of them for it, but wow, did it hurt.

“Yo, Keith. Come back to me buddy.”

“Huh?” Keith started, jolting out of his thoughts by Hunk snapping his fingers in front of his face.

“Sorry,” Hunk smiled. “I asked if you were coming? We wanna show you something cool.”

Keith’s expression went blank, not entirely registering Hunk’s suggestion. He searched Lance’s face, but the blue paladin still had that same grin stretched across his features. Keith hesitated, the cogs turning in his head until Lance finally got impatient.

“Come on! Before I change my mind!”

Keith reached for Hunk’s hand, allowing the other to hoist him to his feet, before falling in step behind both of his colleagues.

They took an elevator to the top floor and began to walk through the corridors of the castle, their footsteps keeping time with Lance’s excited chatter. They turned down one hallway, and then two more, before Keith realized that he had no idea where they were.

“I’ve never been down this way before,” Keith said half to himself, stopping Lance mid sentence without meaning to.

“I’m not surprised,” Hunk replied, not at all perturbed by the sudden interruption. “This area is out of the way for all of us.”

“Yeah.” Lance added. “It’s nowhere near the training area, kitchen, or any of our rooms, so there’s really no reason for any of us to go down this way.”

“Then how did you guys end up down here?”

Hunk and Lance shared a quick look. Another one of those silent conversations that Keith was starting to realize happened almost as often as any other form of communication.

“We started exploring a bit whenever we couldn’t sleep,” Lance shrugged. “Turns out, the castle’s like a maze of rooms and hallways.”

“We definitely got lost a few times,” Hunk piped in.

“We didn’t really find a lot of exciting stuff. A lot of empty rooms and storage mostly. We did find one room that made all that wandering worth it though.”

Lance stopped in front of a single door. Opening it revealed a metal ladder leading up into what appeared to be a trap door. Lance climbed the ladder, followed by Keith and Hunk at the rear.

Keith’s eyes went wide as soon as he figured out where they he led him. It was a medium sized room with nothing adorning the walls or hard metal floor. A makeshift nest of blankets and pillows was laid out right in the center of it, but none of this was what made this room what it was. Replacing the ceiling above their heads was a convex bubble of clear glass, creating some sort of observatory. Keith imagined that the previous inhabitants used it to track anomalies or star gaze while floating through space. Currently, rust red droplets of rain fell on the roof, sliding down the glass in streams and creating a sound that Keith never really thought that he’d miss.

“Well?” Lance nudged him in the side, waiting for confirmation that this was seriously the coolest shit. Keith just nodded, not wanting to vocalize the fact that Lance was right for a change.

“We come here to just watch space float by sometimes,” Hunk said, gesturing to the pile of pillows before dropping down in the center of it and getting comfortable. “Always wanted to see what it looked like in the rain.”

“I haven’t seen rain in a long time. I didn’t exactly get a lot of it living in the desert,” Keith responded. “I would’ve never guessed that the next time I’d see it, it would be so red.”

Hunk patted the area to his left, and Keith took the invitation without hesitation while Lance occupied the space on Hunk’s right. “Coran said that the clouds in the atmosphere are full of iron oxide, so the rain is basically rust water,” the yellow paladin explained.

Keith just nodded and accepted the blanket when Lance tossed it around all of their shoulders. They sat in companionable silence for a while, listening to the water tapping against the glass. Keith glanced at the two beside him and noticed how easily Lance seemed to lean into Hunk, resting his head on his shoulder with a large arm keeping him close. Keith looked down and felt the space between him the others like a canyon he couldn’t seem to cross. For them, it was second nature, but for Keith, it was like he was wading through space goo.

A sudden flash of light and the instant crack of thunder followed by a shriek from Lance solved Keith’s dilemma for him, startling him enough to bury himself against Hunk’s side and duck beneath the blanket. Mortified by his knee-jerk reaction, Keith moved to reestablish the space between them, but was promptly halted when Hunk’s other arm reached around him and rested on his side. He began to relax as soon as Hunk’s fingers started running soothing circles up and down his arm, vaguely wondering how Hunk can be so effortlessly calming.

“Heh, space lightning,” Lance chuckled, thankfully unaware of Keith’s situation.

“We’re not actually in space right now, doorknob,” Keith retorted, choosing to focus on something other than his racing thoughts.

“Doorknob?” Lance pouted. “I’m hurt. To think I decided to share my blanket with you.”

“I didn’t ask you to,” Keith countered, pulling the blanket from around his shoulders to toss back into Lance’s face. He caught a glimpse of the pattern on the blanket and stopped mid throw. Instead, Keith held it up to get a better look at it. Tiny blue lions were scattered across the entire blanket in what seemed like the shapes of constellations. Keith raised an eyebrow. “Where did this thing even come from?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Lance smirked.

Keith stared at him with a blank expression. “Yes. Yes I would.”

“Keith, even I don’t know where he gets so many lion themed things, and I’ve honestly given up trying to find out,” Hunk elaborated, rolling his eyes.

Lance’s only response was to waggle his eyebrows, prompting Keith to throw a pillow at his face. Lance laughed and tossed it back, accidentally swiping Hunk across the cheek.

“Nope, nope, nope,” Hunk scolded, wrapping his arms around each of the boys and holding them captive against his chest. “We’re having a nice, calm moment here.

“Besides,” he smirked, “I’d wipe the floor with you.”

“He's not lying,” Lance faked a somber expression. “I'm pretty sure I've seen God.”

Hunk smacked Lance playfully, chuckling low in his chest. Keith snorted.

They stayed like that for a while, resting up against Hunk with Lance chattering occasionally in the background. Eventually, the rain stopped and an orange ray of light slipped through the clouds, revealing small winged creatures flitting around in the impossible atmosphere.

An unfamiliar warmth had spread through Keith’s chest by the time hunger finally drove them from their hiding spot to join the others in the kitchen.

 _This_ , Keith thought as he walked side by side with the other two paladins, _this isn't so bad_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My partners for [ The Primary Big Bang](http://voltronbigbang.tumblr.com/): 
> 
> Artists  
> [Sting ](http://stingdragon.tumblr.com)  
> [Hayden ](http://6oys.tumblr.com)
> 
> Beta  
> [Ry ](http://Arkcry.tumblr.com)


	5. Chapter Five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for leaving me with so many kudos and lovely comments. ;-; I haven't written anything in over five years and the support is a major confidence boost!
> 
> Anyways! On to chapter five! 
> 
> . . . still waiting on art though. OTL

“I’m impressed,” Allura greeted the paladins on their return to the castle. They had responded to another distress signal, expecting it to be a quick in and out mission, but of course, nothing ever works out that way. What started out as routine, turned into an exhausting fight with multiple ships teeming with Galra tech bandits. The one who had set off the signal barely had time to do so before the bandits completely overtook their modest fleet of cargo ships. The paladins had managed to run off the attackers in the end, with the alien in charge of the cargo fleet thanking them profusely.

“I have never seen you all working in tandem so well before,” Allura continued, beaming with pride. 

“Looks like all that extra joint practice paid off,” Shiro commented, patting both Keith and Lance on the back. Lance gave a thumbs up, exhaustion clear on his face, while Keith voiced a tired, “Yeah.” 

After a short debriefing, they parted ways, wandering off to shower, assess their wounds, and rest. Keith entertained the thought of a nap after nearly falling asleep under the shower spray, but a knock at his door put that thought on hold. 

“Hunk?” 

“Hey,” the yellow paladin smiled warmly from the doorway, “they let me grab a few things from the kitchens on the cargo ship and I was wondering. . . are you hungry?”

Keith opened his mouth, but the sound of his stomach growling loudly answered the question for him. Maybe a snack wouldn’t be a bad idea. “Yeah,” he nodded, “I could go for some food.” 

“Awesome!” Hunk clapped his arm around Keith’s shoulders, pulling him in close and steering him down the hallway. Keith leaned into Hunk’s side, too tired to feel embarrassed at the close proximity. The first thing Keith noticed upon entering the kitchen was Lance sitting cross legged on the counter, examining something round and green. The second thing he noticed was the array of food spread out on the same counter. At least, he thought it was food? Was that a purple pepper? 

“Hunk, man, I gotta hand it to you,” Lance frowned, poking at the round object in his hand, “I have no idea what any of this would be.”

“Do you HAVE to sit on the counter?” Hunk sighed, shaking his head yet making no move to remove Lance from the counter himself. 

“I’m  _ helping _ ,” Lance smirked as he tossed the piece of food back into the pile. Keith pulled a stool up to the counter, eyes wandering over the countertop. He picked up the purple pepper looking thing and a kitchen knife. He sliced through the center of the “pepper” and was surprised to find that the inside looked more like a light purple kiwi. 

“I think I’m going to let you figure this out,” Keith yielded, handing the fruit off to Hunk.

“That’s probably for the best,” Lance responded in all seriousness, leaning on his elbows to watch as Hunk weeded out a few items, starting with Keith’s pepper. He went to work cutting, chopping, and tasting as he went. Lance attempted to narrate what Hunk was doing as if he was on a cooking show until Hunk flicked him on the forehead affectionately and told him to stop being weird. Keith snorted, too tired to stifle the short bout of laughter that followed, affecting both Hunk and Lance like a contagion. 

“Voila!” Hunk finally laid out three bowls filled with a strange looking concoction of purple, orange, and blue with a flourish. The other two wasted no time digging in, offering a thumbs up and a muffled “YUM” when Hunk asked how it tasted. Of  _ course  _ it was delicious. 

“You know,” Keith commented absently, “It’s kinda ridiculous that I had to get spirited away into space to encounter some decent food. The Garrison didn’t exactly hire the best chefs.” 

Lance shot a look at Hunk, who responded with a silent nod in Keith’s direction. Lance chewed thoughtfully for a moment, pushing what was left in his bowl around with his fork and swallowing.

“Speaking of the Garrison,” he began, speaking slowly as if he were still trying to figure out what to say. “There’s something that Shiro mentioned that’s been bugging me.”

“Yeah?” Keith raised a brow, thinking back to the conversation he had overheard weeks ago. 

“As far as any of us knew, you were the Garrison’s golden boy. You had the instructors in the palm of your hand but. . . ,” Lance continued, looking a bit unsure, “Shiro said something about the odds being stacked against you? What did he mean by that?”

Keith mulled it over, glancing between Lance and Hunk, who both remained silent, waiting while Keith thought it through. He cleared his throat a bit. 

“I was enrolled at the Garrison on a scholarship,” Keith shrugged. “I had no choice but to do well enough to keep it. I had instructors watching me around the clock to make sure that I met every ridiculous stipulation. If I fell below the line, there would be no second chances. I would have just been kicked out.”

“Really?” Lance sounded skeptical, “What kind of scholarship was that?”

“I was an orphan. The scholarship was supposed to give an opportunity to people like me who wouldn’t have been able to get in otherwise.” Keith sighed, pushing his empty bowl across the counter. “The problem was that it was so  _ hard _ to even get considered that only one other person had managed to get it before me. I was almost denied because I didn’t have an acceptable sponsor to vouch for me. Thankfully, I met Shiro during a tour and he offered to be my sponsor. He was only at the end of his second year, but the council accepted it. After I was enrolled, they cracked down on making sure I met all of their requirements. That meant long study hours, extra training, and making sure I remained in the top percentage of the class. I had no time for myself. The council expected me to fail, encouraged it even, so I had to constantly prove myself.”

“That’s . . . incredibly classist,” Hunk made a face.

“Yeah, but what else would you expect?” Keith pointed out. 

Lance looked down at his hands, a thoughtful expression cemented on his face as Keith spoke. “I’m sorry. I had no idea that’s what was going on.”

“It’s fine, Lance,” Keith replied. “After all, I would never say that it was awful. Difficult, yes, but I had Shiro to back me up. He was in the same boat, top of his class and running on a nearly defunct scholarship, so he understood more than anyone.”

“Wait,” Hunk interrupted, putting a hand up in apology. “You said that only one other person had managed to nab the same scholarship before you. Was. . . was that Shiro?”

“Yeah,” Keith nodded. “But Shiro didn’t need the council breathing down his neck to do well. He was amazing and everyone knew it. When the crew for the Kerberos Mission went missing and they reported them dead due to pilot error, I knew it couldn’t be true. If they had put the blame on literally anything else, I would have been devastated, but I would have accepted it. I started demanding answers that they refused to give me, skipping classes and simulations to sneak around and dig for the information that they wouldn’t release.”

“I heard that they had to escort you off the campus,” Lance smirked.

“They tried,” Keith said, mirroring Lances amused expression. “I punched a council member in the face and hijacked a hovercraft.”

Their uproarious laughter could be heard across the castle.

 

After they had cleaned up the mess in the kitchen, they decided to move into the common area. Keith soon found himself dozing with his head resting in Hunk’s lap and a large hand running fingers through his hair. Lance sat on the floor in front of them, leaning against Hunk’s legs and recalling things that he missed from the Garrison.

“Wait a minute,” Lance paused, poking Keith awake, “Does that mean that you actually  _ struggled _ to take the top spot in the Garrison?”

“Nope,” Keith replied, barely opening his eyes. “The worst part about having long preset study hours was that it was boring as hell.” 

“That’s right,” Hunk chuckled, stilling the hand working its way through Keith’s hair for a brief moment. “Keith has a scary good memory.”

“Figures,” Lance huffed, crossing his arms and changing the subject.

It wasn’t long until Keith fell asleep to the sound of Lance’s voice and the feel of Hunk’s hand on his skin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My partners for [ The Primary Big Bang](http://voltronbigbang.tumblr.com/): 
> 
> Artists  
> [Sting ](http://stingdragon.tumblr.com)  
> [Hayden ](http://6oys.tumblr.com)
> 
> Beta  
> [Ry ](http://Arkcry.tumblr.com)


	6. Chapter Six

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is featuring [Hayden's ](http://6oys.tumblr.com) art that can be found [Here! ](http://6oys.tumblr.com/post/157332461072/art-for-acidpumpkins-fic-closer-for-the)

Keith had began to spend a majority of his downtime with Hunk and Lance to the point where he had unknowingly began to search them out on his own. They were usually pretty easy to find, but sometimes. . . not so much.

“Hey, have you seen Hunk?” Keith asked Pidge as they sat crossed legged on the floor in one of the hallways, messing with what appeared to be a small robot. “Or maybe Lance?”

“Not since this morning,” Pidge replied without breaking concentration away from the mech in their hands. “They’re probably wandering around the castle again.”

Oh, that’s right. Keith recalled being told that they like to explore the unoccupied parts of the castle when they got bored. He voiced a short, “Thanks,” to Pidge who nodded in acknowledgment before heading off in the direction of the observatory. They had only taken him there the one time, but Keith had no troubles remembering which turns to take in the nearly labyrinthian castle. 

He soon found himself at the foot of the ladder leading up into the domed room. As he climbed to the top, he began to hear familiar voices from inside alerting him to the presence of the exact people that he was looking for. He paused at the top, eyes growing wide and a greeting dying in his throat.

Lance sat in Hunk’s lap leaning back against his chest with Hunk’s arms wrapped around his abdomen. The stars blinked down on them from above their heads, sending lines of light through the clear ceiling as they kissed, Lance’s hand resting lightly on Hunk’s cheek. Keith’s face went red as he suddenly remembered the comments that Lance had made in the weight room. Feeling like an intruder, he tried to quietly climb back down the ladder without being noticed. He could just pretend that he didn’t see it.

“Hey, Keith!”

Well, that didn’t work. 

He climbed back up the ladder, trying to think of a proper explanation for him being there aside from,  _ I was bored and just really wanted to spend time with you guys so I figured I’d intrude on one of the only private spaces you have.  _ That sounded a little strange in his head. 

But he wasn’t met with awkward stares like he thought he would be. Hunk gestured for Keith to join them on the blankets, Lance still sitting in his lap like it was the most normal thing in the world. Maybe for them, it actually  _ was _ . 

“What brings you here?” Lance asked after Keith had settled down awkwardly beside them. 

“I was bored and kinda wanted to spend some more time with you guys so. . .” Keith stopped himself before saying the rest of exactly what he told himself not to say. What was  _ wrong _ with him?

“Well, we’re not doing much,” Hunk shrugged, gesturing a bit at the expanse of space above them. “But you’re welcome to stay and hang out.” 

Keith nodded, chewing on a question that he wanted to ask, but didn’t know if it would be considered weird. He decided to ask anyway.

“So,” he began, “How long have you two been. . . together? If you don’t mind my asking.”

“Our parents were friends way before either of us were born,” Lance explained automatically, as if they had been asked a similar question before. “So, we’ve pretty much been together our entire lives.”

“Lance,” Hunk cautioned, noticing the slight discomfort that Keith showed on his face. “I don’t think that that’s what he meant.”

It took a moment for the lightbulb to turn on in Lance’s head. “Oh! Wow, I mean. . . you see. . . it’s kinda weird but, I. . . have no idea?”

Keith snorted.

“What he’s trying to say,” Hunk reiterated, shooting Lance a pointed look, “is that we don’t actually know.”

“Okay, yeah,” Keith nodded for a moment before admitting, “I have no idea what that means.”

“This,” Lance gestured at Hunk and himself, “was never something that we talked about. We didn’t sit down one day and decide that we wanted to be together and then suddenly we were?”

“It was a natural progression and we hardly even noticed it happening,” Hunk added. “We aren’t  _ together _ in the sense that you’re used to; we never discussed being boyfriends or romantic partners at all. We just kinda exist together. We just. . . are.”

“So, basically,” Lance suddenly looked sheepish, rubbing the back of his neck with a tint of red dusting his cheeks, “we can’t answer that question.”

Keith mulled over their answer thoughtfully. “So, what I’m getting is that you guys are soul mates in some sort of undefined, cosmic way that makes sense to you?”

“Yeah, I guess you could say it like that,” Hunk affirmed.

“Alright, sounds good. That answers my question.” Keith couldn’t say that he completely understood how their relationship worked, but he also figured that it was entirely because he had never experienced it himself. For some reason, he felt a bit better after acknowledging that there was something more between them. It made him feel like there was trust between the three of them that he wasn’t aware that he needed. 

“Wait, what?” Lance looked taken aback. “That’s it? No questions, comments, concerns? Just like that?”

“Well,” Keith began thoughtfully, “After getting to know you guys these last few weeks, it just makes sense?”

Hunk smiled, nudging Keith playfully with his shoulder. “Somehow, I knew you’d understand.” 

Keith returned the gesture earnestly. 

The conversation moved to a different subject easily, with Lance deciding that they should try coming up with names for possible constellations above their heads. The result was ridiculous, especially those that came from Lance, but Keith was enjoying every minute of it. 

Eventually, they settled into a comfortable position with Lance and Keith resting their heads on either of Hunk’s shoulders, a comforting arm around both of them. They talked about what they missed from home, Lance and Hunk focusing on their families and the places that they visited together from their childhood. The conversation took a somber turn when Keith admitted that he didn’t actually miss anything. Earth itself, yeah. He missed grass and trees and the predictability of a planet that he had been living on his entire life, but family? He  _ had _ no family. 

“You know,” Hunk murmured when the conversation grew quiet. “My moms would love you. I think they’d like to meet you once we get back home after all of this is over.”

“Yeah, same,” Lance concurred. “My parents already know who you are, but I bet they’d  _ love _ to meet the person that inspired their son to ‘finally make his way in the world’. Besides, I’m pretty sure a few of my sisters already have a crush on you from when they saw you on move in day at the Garrison.”

“Lance has a  _ huge _ family, so you’ll have to prepare yourself for that,” Hunk nodded sagely. 

“And Hunk’s moms have that concerned parental hospitality down. You’ll never go hungry when they’re around,” Lance added with a scoff.

Keith smiled gratefully. “Thanks guys. It really means a lot.” 

Lance reached out and covered Keith’s hand with his own while Hunk squeezed him tightly, leaning his head into the half hug to reassure him that they meant what they said. If Keith didn’t have a family before, he did now. 

Keith’s chest filled with warmth. As Hunk reached up to brush Keith’s hair out of his eyes and Lance ran a thumb across the back of his hand, Keith felt his heart begin to pound beneath his ribcage. 

_ Oh, no. _

__

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My partners for [ The Primary Big Bang](http://voltronbigbang.tumblr.com/): 
> 
> Artists  
> [Sting ](http://stingdragon.tumblr.com)  
> [Hayden ](http://6oys.tumblr.com)
> 
> Beta  
> [Ry ](http://Arkcry.tumblr.com)


	7. Chapter Seven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Keith is basically doomed.

Confusion was nothing new for Keith, especially after taking up a position as a paladin of Voltron. New and strange things happened every day. The castle itself was an anomaly. Nothing that Coran said ever made any sense. All things considered, he actually thought that he was doing pretty good.

But what was  _ this _ ? 

Keith pressed his forehead against the cool metal of his lion’s control panel, groaning in agitation. Red buzzed a concerned question at him, her aura vibrating through his chest. Keith was grateful for her presence. He needed time to clear his head, but he discovered that after spending so much time with Hunk and Lance, he was no longer comfortable with being alone. 

“What am I doing?” Keith mumbled, lifting his head and covering his face with his hands.  He spent the last two hours pacing and reflecting on the events that had led to his current predicament. His insides felt fuzzy whenever Hunk touched him. His face burned whenever Lance smiled in his direction. His heart felt like it was going to take flight whenever they showed  _ each other _ any kind of affection. He had tried finding an alternative explanation for these things that he couldn’t control, but despite his efforts, nothing came to mind. 

Red nudged Keith again, that same concern clear in her intentions. 

“I might,” Keith sighed, dragging his hands down his face. “I might have. . . feelings for two of the other paladins.” After he finally said it out loud, Keith really started to realize how messed up that was. It wasn’t just one of them. It was  _ both _ . And they were already  _ together _ . The whole situation was hopeless. 

Keith suddenly felt a quick pulsing beat filled with amusement and affection in his chest. He raised a brow at the sensation. 

“Red. . . Are you  _ laughing _ at me?” She hummed an affirmative. Keith snorted, realizing how this might look to a sentient robot cat. “Alright, alright. That’s fair.”

He paused for a moment, mulling over his next question. “Should I tell them? Just so they know? Would it make them uncomfortable?” Red responded with an equal amount of confusion. Of course, Keith never expected her to have the answers for him, but it couldn’t hurt to ask. 

“Paladins! To your lions!” Allura’s voice reverberated through the castle’s intercom system. “We have a distress signal!”

“Well,” Keith shrugged, jumping out of the cockpit momentarily to pull on his armor, “at least now I have something else to focus on.”

 

Keith was the first to deploy his lion, with the others following suit shortly after. He slipped Red into formation and turned on his comm system to wait for instructions.

“The signal is coming from that red planet just ahead,” Allura’s voice echoed in his ear. “I believe that it’s called ‘Vexdraya’ and it’s inhabitants are considered pacifists with no formal military. There should also be no dangers from the environment. Even so, proceed with caution.”

“Understood,” Shiro responded before leading the other four towards the planet in question. They set their trajectory for an uninhabited area not far from the origin of the signal in hopes of assessing the situation from a distance. They pulled up before hitting the ground. 

“Alien planets are so weird,” Pidge commented on the environment. “It’s like the entire ground is covered in red vines.”

Keith took a closer look and realized that they were right. Beneath a thin canopy of green, dark red vines were visible. No wonder the entire planet looked red from afar.

“Hang on guys, I think I see something,” Shiro said, pulling back slightly. There was a clearing up ahead, and in that clearing was a lone ship bathed in purple lights. 

“It’s definitely the Galra,” Lance commented. 

“Odd,” Allura mused, “I wonder what a single ship is doing on a planet like this?”

“Well, whatever they want,” Keith responded, “we’ll just have to get rid of them.” 

 

The battle was alarmingly short. All five lions flew in, surrounding the ship in seconds, only for it to take flight and rocket straight into the air. The paladins followed, taking shots at the ship’s hull and dodging turret blasts as they left the atmosphere.

“Anyone else kinda feel like they’re not trying very hard?” Hunk commented. “Not that I’m complaining, but this is weird.”

Keith had to agree. They had a harder time pursuing tech bandits, and this was clearly a Galra battleship. They had to be planning something.

Suddenly, the ship let out a stun blast, knocking the lions back without warning. Before any of the paladins could regain their bearings, the Galra ship disappeared into a wormhole. 

“That was,” Lance commented in confusion, “incredibly easy?” There was an echo of agreement from the other paladins. 

“Should we follow them?”

“While I do agree that the circumstances seem a bit odd,” Allura responded thoughtfully. “We should probably check on the locals and take the chance to establish a good rapport.” 

“Alright, everyone,” Shiro commanded. “Let’s head back to the surface.” 

 

The inhabitants of this strange planet were grateful, to say the least. A group of humanoid, rust-colored aliens came out of the trees, cheering and jumping into the air with enthusiasm, as soon as the lions touched down. After a brief conversation with their leaders, Allura was allowed to land the castle in the same area. 

“We must celebrate and give thanks to you, our liberators,” the tallest of the Vexdrayans said with a natural lisp in their voice, bowing their head low towards the paladins. A few behind them followed suit. 

“Truly, we would love to,” Allura responded warmly, “but we have many questions that we would like to ask you. What were that Galra doing here? What did they want from you? From your planet?”

“Questions may be answered over food and good company,” the alien insisted, placing an arm around Allura’s shoulders and guiding her into the trees. “Come. Before the light grows dark.” The Vexdrayans surrounded each of them, taking them by the hands and urging them forward with excitement and awe.

“I suppose we could spare a moment,” Allura conceded, “for a small celebration.”

The locals cheered.

 

The paladins all had troubles finding their footing on the vine-covered ground, but the Vexdrayans seemed to have adapted long arms and monkey-like feet to keep them steady. From what Keith could gather, they lived mostly in the trees and grew their food off the banks of a nearby river. They seemed rather primitive compared to any of the other species that they had encountered. 

Keith was led to sit beside a nearby fire pit and handed a plate of greens that did not look all that appetizing to him. He did, however, accept the cup filled with a sweet, nectar-like drink that he was offered. That one wasn’t too bad. They soon got the fire pit lit and the sounds of chatter filled the air.

As he looked around, Keith couldn’t help but frown. There was something about this whole situation with that Galra ship that didn't sit right, and he knew that the others felt it, too. Shiro, Allura, and Pidge stood off in the distance looking confused as they spoke with one of the Vexdrayan leaders. Hunk and Lance were settled nearby, sipping nectar while they chatted with the locals, an air of uncertainty carrying in their voices. It wasn’t long until Pidge broke themself off from their group and hobbled over to where Keith was sitting.

“What did you guys figure out?” Keith questioned, accepting another refill from the alien next to him.

“It’s so weird,” Pidge responded. “There’s no trace of tech on this planet at all, so I asked how they managed to throw up a distress signal. They just stared at me like they didn’t know what that was.”

“Wait, so if they didn’t send out that signal,” Keith pondered, “who did?”

“Exactly.”

“Was it the Galra?” 

“It’s possible,” Pidge shrugged. “But then why send it in the first place? The Vexdrayans don’t even know what the Galra wanted. They made no actual demands. Just pushed them around a bunch, confined them to one area, and threatened to destroy the planet if they didn’t comply.” 

“That makes no sense,” Keith said, a slight exasperation clear in his voice. 

“None of this does.”

Keith opened his mouth to say something more, but something strange caught his eye. Lance and Hunk sat across from them, with Lance leaning heavily on Hunk’s side. Something bright was covering Lance’s skin in patches, like someone had broken open a blue glowstick and smeared it on his skin.

“Wha?” Keith tried to get up, but stumbled and landed hard on Pidge’s shoulder. 

“Keith?” Pidge tried to nudge Keith back into a sitting position, but he just slumped back into place, eye’s still focused on Lance. “Shiro! Something’s wrong with Keith!”

“Yeah, I think there’s something wrong with Lance, too!” Hunk added, with Lance now lying limp in his lap, a giant grin on his face.

Shiro came running. He went over to Keith first, pulling him up by the shoulders to look into his face. Keith’s head lolled a bit before trying to focus on Shiro’s blurry face. Keith snorted, dropping his cup and spilling the rest of the nectar on the ground.

“What’s in that?” Shiro asked, pointing at the cup in question.

“I can answer that!” Coran stepped forward, twirling his moustache between two fingers. “This is a traditional Vexdrayan beverage. Its juices are culled from the rare vinewhip flower and then poured into casks to ferment over long periods of time until it congeals into this nectar like substance. They then add it to a bit of water for consistency and voila! A natural drink that helps clear the mind and tastes amazing, too! It’s perfectly normal to experience a few ‘visions’ after drinking enough of it.” Coran glanced over at Lance right before he rolled to the ground, bursting into laughter. “This, on the other hand. . . might not be very normal.”

“Fermented?” Shiro sighed, rubbing his brow. “Pidge, don’t drink any of that.”

“Roger that.”

“Hunk, you feeling okay?” Shiro asked.

“Yeah, I didn’t have as much as Lance.”

“Good, then help me get these two back to the castle. Looks like it’s time to cut the celebration short.” Shiro lifted Keith into a fireman’s carry and headed back towards the castleship. Keith lifted his head and watched Hunk lift Lance from under his knees and shoulders, those blue spots on Lance’s skin glowing and shifting until they began to envelope Hunk’s skin as well.

The rest of the night was a blur. At some point, Keith went from being carted inside by Shiro, to leaning on Hunk for support with Lance on his other side giggling like a child. They were in the hallway one second and then his room the next, Hunk depositing Keith onto his bunk gently. He paused to run a hand through Keith’s hair before turning to leave with Lance in tow.

“Wait,” Keith slurred, eyes still transfixed on the pulsing of those bright symbols. “C’mere for a second. I wanna see something.”

He didn’t recall when Lance appeared before him, but suddenly Keith was touching his face, gingerly tracing those spots with his fingers while Lance looked down at him in awe. “They’re all over your skin,” Keith could hear himself murmur. “They won’t stop glowing.”

“You have them, too,” was the last thing that he heard, whispered so softly, before he pulled Lance in to press their lips together. After that, the world went dark. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My partners for [ The Primary Big Bang](http://voltronbigbang.tumblr.com/): 
> 
> Artists  
> [Sting ](http://stingdragon.tumblr.com)  
> [Hayden ](http://6oys.tumblr.com)
> 
> Beta  
> [Ry ](http://Arkcry.tumblr.com)


	8. Chapter Eight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haaaaaaa, I'm sorry.

Keith woke up and stared at the ceiling, his head swimming from the night before. He made a mental note to no longer accept strange drinks from aliens. Running a parched tongue across the roof of his mouth, he realized that he desperately needed a glass of water. Keith rolled out of his bunk and made his way to the connected bathroom. Ignoring the glass on the counter, he drank directly from the faucet, gulping down more water than he ever thought he could handle until the dryness in his mouth disappeared.

He took a moment to look at himself in the mirror, water dripping from his chin as he attempted to recall what had happened. He remembered the feeling of unease, the sickly sweet nectar, the lights dancing across Lance’s skin, and. . .

“Oh, my god,” Keith covered his face in his hands. What did he _do_ ? Did he really kiss Lance? In front of Hunk? He had barely come to terms with his feelings for the two of them, and then _this_ happens. Keith could see the bridges that he had built between them crumbling.

“I fucked up,” he groaned at his reflection, pressing his forehead against the glass. “Now what?”

Should he pretend it didn’t happen? No, that’s a terrible idea. How would he live with himself with _that_ hanging over his head? He needed to talk to them; to apologize for crossing the line. But what should he _say_? Should he tell the truth?

_Sorry I kissed Lance last night. It’s just that I wasn’t really myself so it was hard to hide my inexplicable feelings for you guys. Forgive me?_

Nope.

Nope nope nope.

It was bad enough that he just had to kiss Lance with Hunk in the room. Telling them that he was falling pretty hardcore for them would only make the situation worse. This was definitely something that he was not prepared to deal with.

“I need help,” Keith sighed at his reflection. Maybe he could ask Shiro? At this point, Keith figured that that would be his best bet. Shiro was always better with words, so maybe he would be able to give Keith some advice on what to say.

He wiped the water off his face, and headed for the door, pausing to press an ear against the metal before opening it. Hearing no one in the halls, Keith proceeded cautiously down the corridor. As long as he could find Shiro without running into either Hunk or Lance, he would be fine.

“Hey, Keith!”

Damnit.

Keith could feel his shoulders tense at the sound of Hunk’s voice. His mind was screaming _Run!_ repeatedly in his head. He seriously debated it. Instead, Keith turned to face him, eye’s focusing on a spot on Hunk’s shoulder.

“Are you feeling okay?” Hunk asked with concern. Of _course_ he’s concerned. It’s Hunk. Hunk is wonderful. “I know that Lance wasn’t feeling the greatest after last night.”

There it was. There was Keith’s opening. Say something.

“I guess the drinks the Vexdrayans gave us were basically alcohol mixed with a mild hallucinogen,” Hunk chuckled. “They were super surprised that it affected you guys like that. I guess it’s not the same for. . .”

“I kissed Lance!”

Hunk paused at Keith’s outburst before letting out a short chuckle. “Of course, I know that,” he responded. “I was there.”

“I know, I know,” Keith mumbled, shifting his gaze to a spot near Hunk’s boot, “and I’m so sorry.”

“Wait,” Hunk spoke slowly, reaching out to place a hand beneath Keith’s chin and gently move his gaze from the floor. He waited until Keith focused his eyes on him before speaking again, “Do you not remember what happened?”

Keith hesitated. He felt that he had remembered enough to know that he made a mistake. But then why did Hunk seem calm?

“Keith, I. . .” Hunk’s next words were interrupted by a loud explosion followed by the alarm and Allura’s booming voice.

“Paladins, the castle is under attack!”

Hunk muttered something that sounded a bit like an expletive under his breath. “Okay, listen real quick.” He took Keith by the shoulders, leaning in close to be heard over the alarm. “After we’re done with this, we’re going to find Lance and we’re going to talk about this. Just. . . trust me when I say that you did _nothing_ wrong and you have _nothing_ to apologize for. Yeah?”

Keith nodded, incredibly puzzled by Hunk’s words. They took off for the hangar together, and Keith couldn’t help but let his confusion take over. _What did he MEAN?_

 

“Is that the same battleship from Vexdraya?”

The paladins circled the castle, landing their sights on another lone Galra ship. Damage from their last short battle dotted the sides of its hull.

“It looks like it,” Pidge responded, “I wonder if they’re going to run away again.”

At that moment, the ship let out an ion cannon blast in their direction. The lions scattered, barely avoiding the purple beam. The ship wasted no time and began firing at them in quick succession.

“Looks like they’re actually trying this time!” Lance called out, releasing an icy beam at the Galra ship’s weapons. “They might ACTUALLY give us some trouble.”

“Alright guys, stay alert,” Shiro commanded from the black lion, “Focus on taking out their weapons first.”

The remaining four voiced an affirmative and dispersed quickly to give the Galra a harder target to hit. Hunk smashed the side of his lion into the ion cannon while Shiro and Keith took out smaller targets with their jaw blades. Pidge and Lance flew to the front end of the ship, dodging turret blasts to shut down the weapons there. The Galra ship struggled to hit such fast moving targets, a few blasts glancing off of the yellow lion’s tough exterior but nothing more. Shiro switched his focus to slicing up and down the ship’s exterior, minor explosions erupting across its hull.

Suddenly, when it started to feel like there was no way that they would lose, the paladins were hit with a stun blast, more powerful than the one from before. The lions went limp, the blast affecting their systems and temporarily shutting them down. Another wormhole appeared in front of the enemy battleship.

“They did this the last time!” Keith called out in frustration.

“We took out most of their weapons,” Hunk pointed out, “There’s really nothing else for them to do but run.”

“Uh, guys?” Lance squeaked, a hint of fear clear in his voice. Keith leaned forward in his seat, trying to get a good look at Lance’s location. His eyes grew wide.

The blue lion floated limp in space, surrounded by the purple glow of the retreating ship’s tractor beam as it drew Lance in.

“Lance! You have to get out of there!” Keith cried out into his headset.

“I’m trying, but Blue is completely shut down!”

“Lance, concentrate!” Keith could hear the panic in Hunk’s voice. “Try to wake her up!”

“I can’t!”

Just then, Red and the other lions roared to life. Keith grabbed the controls, quickly making a beeline for Lance’s position in the tractor beam, the rest of the paladins doing the same. He could see Blue struggle to break free. He was so close. Then, in the blink of an eye, Lance and the Galra ship were gone with the wormhole closing behind them.

“LANCE!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My partners for [ The Primary Big Bang](http://voltronbigbang.tumblr.com/): 
> 
> Artists  
> [Sting ](http://stingdragon.tumblr.com)  
> [Hayden ](http://6oys.tumblr.com)
> 
> Beta  
> [Ry ](http://Arkcry.tumblr.com)


	9. Chapter Nine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PLOT.

“Where did they take him?” Hunk was the first to speak, bursting into the control room with Keith, Pidge, and Shiro not far behind. “We have to get him back!” 

“I. . . I don’t know,” Allura said, running her fingers across the holo-monitor frantically. “They’ve disappeared into the wormhole and I don’t think I can trace them.”

“Hang on, let me take a look,” Pidge slid in next to Allura and pulled out their laptop, connecting it to the castle’s system before getting to work.

“Lance. . .” Hunk whispered softly, closing his eyes in anguish. Keith wished he had something to say to him. Hunk always knew what to say to calm him down, but Keith felt like he was choking on his own tongue every time he tried. Instead, he reached out and took Hunk’s hand in his own, squeezing gently to show that he was there and that he understood. Keith sighed in relief when Hunk squeezed back. 

“Hey, guys?” There was a crackling sound in Keith’s headset. “Can anyone hear me?

“Lance!?” Keith called out in surprise, realizing by the looks he got that he was the only one who still had his helmet on. “It’s him! He’s contacting us!”

“Keith?” Lance asked in a low whisper. “I can’t connect to the castle.”

“Lance, where are you?”

“Pidge, pull the comm up on the castle’s PA system,” Allura directed. 

“On it,” Pidge focused on their computer for a moment before there was a crackling heard overhead.

“I’m hiding,” Lance answered, still in that whispering tone. “They have Blue locked up in a hangar bay, but they didn’t notice me escape.”

“Are you in a safe place?” Shiro asked. 

“No, they’re looking for me, but I overheard them talking,” Lance sighed, the sound of quiet shuffling coming from his end. “It was a trap. The whole thing. They sent out the distress signal on Vexdraya to weed us out and test this new stun wave weapon out on the lions. They always planned on taking one of us when they attacked the castle.”

“Do you have any idea where they took you?” Hunk asked, a hint of hope clear in his voice. “We can come find you.”

“No, you don’t understand,” Lance replied. “Taking one of the lions IS the trap. They’re expecting you to follow and leave the castle unguarded. I heard one of them ask if the ‘trail’ that they left was working.”

“Wait,” Pidge slowed their typing, focusing on one spot on their laptop. “I see it. They left a trace behind. I think we can re-open their wormhole.”

“How fast can you do it?” Allura directed at Pidge.

“Stop, you can’t take that route,” Lance spoke quickly. “They have a fleet of battleships waiting. First, they’ll disable the lions, then they’ll attack the castle. They’re drawing you out.”

A hush settled over the castle as everyone took the information in. The chances of getting Lance back were starting to look bleak.

“Is this Zarkon’s doing?” Allura questioned.

“I don’t think so,” Lance answered. “It looks like this was cooked up by one of his commanders. I think he’s acting on his own.”

Allura looked thoughtful, “I’m assuming that they won’t notify Zarkon until they succeed with their plan. That gives us some time.”

There was more loud shuffling on Lance’s end, followed by a distant shout. “Quiznak, they found me! Allura, don’t follow their trace! I’ll be fine!”

“Lance!” Pidge called out suddenly, “Keep your comm on! We can use it to find you!”

There was more shouting and a loud crashing noise followed by muffled shuffling before the line went silent. 

“Lance!” Hunk cried out, tears beginning to form in the corners of his eyes.

“His comm’s still on!” Pidge exclaimed, “I can trace him!” 

“We can’t leave the castle unguarded,” Shiro commented, worry lacing his words, “Even if we could, they’re waiting to shoot us down on sight.”

“I’ll go find him,” Hunk said, a determination in his voice that Keith had never heard before. 

“Hunk, it’s too dangerous,” Allura said, trying to stay calm. “We need to come up with a plan of action.”

“I’ve got coordinates!” Pidge declared from behind their laptop screen.

“Good,” Hunk said, ignoring Allura’s words with steel in his voice. “Open a wormhole. I’m going after him.” He turned without another word and headed back towards the hangar. 

Keith hesitated for a moment before running after him. “Hunk, wait!”

“You can’t stop me from going, Keith,” Hunk said as soon as he had caught up to him.

“I’m not going to stop you,” Keith responded, falling into step beside Hunk. “I’m coming with you.” 

Hunk stopped dead in his tracks. “Keith, you can’t. . .”

“Yes, I can,” Keith interrupted. “Our best bet is to go undetected, and the best way for us to do that is to take Red. No offence Hunk, but your lion isn’t exactly built for stealth.” Hunk’s shoulders drooped. “Pidge outfitted Red with an upgraded cloaking device. We can sneak in, grab Lance and Blue and sneak out.”

Hunk took a shaky breath, tears now streaming down his face. He opened his mouth to argue, but no words came out. Keith was right.

“Besides,” Keith continued, placing a hand on Hunk’s shoulder, “We’re better together.”

A look Keith could not read crossed Hunk’s face. Before he knew what was happening, Keith found himself wrapped in Hunk’s arms, their faces dangerously close. Hunk searched Keith’s eyes, a question in his gaze. Keith complied, crossing the little distance they had between them to press a soft, lingering kiss against Hunk’s lips. 

The sound of someone clearing their throat nearby forced them to pull apart, red tinting both of their faces. 

“Well, then,” Pidge coughed awkwardly, “if you’re both done, I brought you something that should help.” They held out the small robot that Keith had seen them working on and pressed a button on it’s side. The robot sprang up into the air, hovering a few inches away from Pidge’s face. “I was trying to build something to replace Rover, and this is what I came up with. It has a direct connection to my laptop, so if you run into trouble with anything tech related, I should be able to help from here.”

“Thank you, Pidge,” Hunk spoke sincerely while Keith nodded his agreement. 

“Allura agreed to open a wormhole near Lance’s location. She’ll keep it open as long as she can, but you need to hurry,” Pidge explained. “You’ll be far enough away that the Galra shouldn’t notice right away.”

Keith and Hunk nodded, voicing their thanks and taking off to the hangar together with Pidge calling after them. “Good Luck!”

 

The wormhole dropped them off within sight of the Galra fleet, hidden within a cluster of space rocks. Keith activated his lion’s cloaking device, guiding Red towards the source of Lance’s tracking information. Hunk kept an unsteady hand on Keith’s shoulder the entire ride. 

Keith turned over multiple questions in his head, chewing on his bottom lip in thought. He recalled the feel of Hunk’s lips like a movie playing out in his head. He reacted on impulse, goaded on by the idea that Hunk wanted to kiss him, too. 

“You’re thinking about it, aren’t you?” Keith jumped at the soft sound of Hunk’s voice.

“Thinking about what?” Hunk fixed him with a look and Keith sighed. “Please tell me it wasn’t a mistake.”

“It wasn’t,” Hunk squeezed Keith’s shoulder. “Soon as we get Lance back, we’ll talk, but for now, we need to focus on this mission.”

“Yeah.”

Keith pulled Red up beneath the hull of the battleship, resetting her cloaking device to keep her hidden. They snuck onto the ship easily enough, climbing through a vent that eventually deposited them into an empty corridor. Keith pulled up the tracking device, and motioned Hunk to follow. The tracker lead them through a few hallways sparsely guarded by sentries that were easy enough to work their way around. They soon found themselves stopped by a locked door with a touchpad on the wall. 

“Pidge,” Hunk whispered, “Can you take care of this door?” The small robot sprung to life, scanning the touchpad until they heard a click accompanied by a purple light. The door slid open revealing a large hangar, and lying in the center of the room. . . 

“It’s Blue,” Hunk observed. “Looks like she’s out of commission. They must've hit her point blank with another stun wave.”

“Yeah, and this,” Keith held up Lance’s helmet, “Is what the tracker lead us to.”

“He dumped it before they caught him,” Hunk frowned. “Probably to make sure that he kept his comm on.”

“Now what?”

Hunk looked around thoughtfully, zeroing in on a computer hub near the door. “Hey Pidge, do you think you can pull up a map from this computer?” The robot beeped in acknowledgement, connecting itself to the hub and glowing green. Soon, a map of the ship popped up on the monitor. “Okay, now can you pull up a live map that shows where all of the energy on the ship is concentrated?” The robot complied, finding it in no time. Hunk observed the map for a moment before pointing at a spot in a corner. “There. Other than the bridge, the most energy is going to be concentrated where they hold the prisoners. I’m betting that Lance is being kept there.”

“Hunk, you’re a genius,” Keith commented in awe. Always in awe. 

“I can ask Pidge to record the map for us. . .” Hunk began, face tinted red from the compliment.

“No need,” Keith interrupted. “I’ve got it. Let’s go.”

It took seconds for Keith to memorize the path to the prisoner cells. He led Hunk through more corridors, backtracking and finding a new path twice to avoid running into Galra soldiers. 

“Hunk. Keith,” Allura’s voice spoke through their headsets. “You’re running out of time. I can’t keep the wormhole open too much longer.” 

“How much time?” Keith asked.

“About a twenty-five doboshes.” 

“We can do it,” Keith confirmed, continuing down the corridor and stopping at another door. “Pidge. Door.” 

The robot chirped indignantly, scanning the touchpad until the door slid open. Inside were multiple empty cells with a heavy metal door at the end of the room. Hunk and Keith made eye contact for a brief moment before heading straight for the metal door. There was no lock on it, so they simply pushed it open. 

In the center of the room, strapped to a table, was an unconscious Lance. Chemical burns were visible on his arms and neck, beads of sweat dripping from his forehead. Hunk rushed to his side, touching his face gingerly and whispering his name. Keith couldn’t help but stare at the burns, anger bubbling in his chest. With a quiet groan, Lance opened his eyes.

“Hunk,” Lance rasped, throat dry and sore as if he had been screaming. “Keith.”

“We’re getting you out of here,” Hunk replied. “Will you be able to walk?”

“Yeah, as long as you can get me off this table.

“Pidge,” Keith spoke up. “Can you do anything about these cuffs?” The robot flew over to one of Lance’s restraints.

“Problem,” Pidge warned in Keith’s ear. “I can open his restraints, but there’s a safety net in place that detects when outside sources release the locks. Removing the net would take too long, which means that releasing Lance is going to set off the alarms.”

Keith pulled out his bayard, “Be prepared to run.” Hunk took a deep breath and nodded. “Pidge,” Keith continued into the comm, “do it.”

“Roger that.” The robot continued its scan, releasing the shackles. Immediately after Lance was freed, a high pitched alarm sounded, alerting the Galra to their presence. Hunk pulled Lance from the table, setting him on his feet. The three of them burst from the door, running as fast as they could with Lance leaning on Hunk for support. 

Keith led the way through the halls, creating a path for the other two by cutting down sentries as he ran. Hunk flung his fist at the ones that barred his way, struggling to keep Lance steady at the same time. The further they went, the more the hallways filled with enemies to slow them down. Still, they worked their way back to the hangar, muscles burning with fatigue. 

“Ah!” Keith cried out in pain as an enemy shot hit its mark, blasting him in the shoulder and making his left arm go limp. He fell to his knees, stars dancing along his vision from the pain as a Galra soldier kicked him swiftly across the face. There was a crunching sound shortly after as Hunk smashed his cannon into the side of the soldier’s head. Lance hobbled over to where Keith had fallen, shakily pulling him back into a sitting position while Hunk cleared a path by unleashing the full force of his cannon at anything that moved. After he took down everything in sight, Hunk ran back to Keith and Lance.

“I can carry you,” Hunk said, already pulling Keith into his arms, “but I won’t be able to fight anything off at the same time.” Keith nodded, grabbing onto Hunk’s shirt with his one good hand. They were so close, he could see the open door just at the end of the hall. 

Hunk took off at a sprint with Lance still holding onto him for support and Keith tucked in his arms. Footsteps sounded behind them, growing closer every second. Still, Hunk ran. Blaster shots ricocheted off the walls around them as their pursuers got closer. Hunk made a strained sound in his throat as one of those shots hit him between the shoulderblades, but he continued running until he crossed the threshold into the hangar. A second shot blasted Hunk in the back sending him crashing to the ground. Keith landed on his bad arm, shooting pain causing his vision to go foggy. 

Keith lifted his head to see what was happening. Lance had pulled out his bayard and was shooting in desperation from the floor with Hunk laying motionless a few feet away. Blue gazed down at them with dead eyes from above, so close yet not close enough. Keith reached up and used the first thing he could grab onto to pull himself to his feet. The pain in his arm was so unbearable, he had to stop for a moment to steady his breathing. As he paused, he noticed that he was leaning on the control hub from earlier. His eyes ghosted over the controls, searching for something useful. He found something that looked incredibly familiar. A large, red button. 

Keith slammed his hand on the button and the hangar doors opened, sucking everything from in the room into space. The three of them hurtled through the open air alongside the blue lion. Lance opened his mouth wide, fingers clawing at his throat as soon as they left the oxygen rich battleship. Keith realized in a panic that he still had Lance’s helmet strapped to his belt. He tried activating his suit’s jetpack to get closer, but exhaustion and pain made it impossible to concentrate. Blue was still stunned, Lance was suffocating, Hunk was out cold, and Keith was barely holding onto consciousness. It was starting to look like they were going to die floating aimlessly into space.

Suddenly, there was a slight flicker of light as Red appeared out of nowhere, shedding her cloaking device and opening her maw to snatch up all three of the helpless paladins. They tumbled into the cockpit, Lance landing on all fours and taking in a loud gasping breath. 

“Red,” Keith croaked, feeling his consciousness slipping away. “Get us out of here.” 

_ Rest now _ , a strange yet familiar voice spoke inside his head,  _ my small Prince. _

Keith closed his eyes and everything went black. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My partners for [ The Primary Big Bang](http://voltronbigbang.tumblr.com/): 
> 
> Artists  
> [Sting ](http://stingdragon.tumblr.com)  
> [Hayden ](http://6oys.tumblr.com)
> 
> Beta  
> [Ry ](http://Arkcry.tumblr.com)


	10. Chapter Ten

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now you get to find out what REALLY happened the night Keith kissed Lance. 
> 
> I apologize for this chapter feeling a but rushed toward the end. OTL
> 
> This is technically the final chapter, but I have a short epilogue that I'll post sometime tomorrow. I also have a few other stories that would be directly connected to this one that I want to write. We'll see how things go. :)
> 
> Thank you so much for all of you who left comments and kudos. I wish I had time to respond to each of the comments individually, but even so, I'm extremely grateful for all of the support! I don't know if I'll ever join another Big Bang (haaaaaa that was a little TOO stressful) but hopefully this gave me the kick I need to start writing again! ;-;

_ Hunk kept an arm slung around Keith’s shoulder, keeping him flush against his side as they stumbled through the castle halls. From Hunk’s other side, Lance chattered in slurred words, easily clinging to his arm for support as they walked. Keith wasn’t paying attention to anything Lance was saying. His eyes wandered fluidly from the dancing lights on Lance’s skin to the amused smile on Hunk’s face and back again. Keith’s heartbeat hammered in his chest.  _

_ “Alright, dude,” Hunk said, stopping in front of Keith’s door and balancing Lance awkwardly to reach out and open it. “This is your stop.” Keith responded by clutching Hunk’s shirt and burying his face into his side.  _

_ “Okay, okay,” Hunk chuckled, shifting his grip to shuffle both boys into Keith’s room. He leaned over to temporarily deposit Lance against the wall while he took care of Keith. After helping him remove his jacket and boots, Hunk tucked Keith in under the blanket, pausing to run a gentle hand through his hair.  _

_ “Sleep well, okay?” Hunk whispered, an affectionate smile lighting up his face. Keith sighed, losing himself in that warm gaze. Panic rose in his throat when Hunk turned away to collect Lance, still pulsing in that curious light. He wasn’t ready for either of them to leave him alone.  _

_ “Wait,” Keith pleaded, eyes following the dips and swirls of blue swimming across Lance’s skin as he called them over. Lance stumbled from Hunk’s grip, landing on his knees in front of Keith. He leaned into Keith’s gentle touch, blue eyes darting across the other’s face in curiosity. _

_ “They’re all over your skin,” Keith murmured, “They won’t stop glowing.” _

_ Lance met Keith’s gaze with a wide smile and laughter escaping his lips. “You have them, too.” _

_ The kiss was soft and sweet, a lingering touch of lips that left Keith’s heart fluttering like crazy. When they parted, Keith had already decided that he would do it again, if he had the chance. The visible dusting of red on his face led Keith to assume that Lance had the same thought. _

_ “Alright, you two,” Hunk chuckled, kneeling down to sling one of Lance’s arms around his shoulders, “I think it’s time for you guys to sleep this off.” _

_ “Hunk, wait,” Keith reached out and took Hunk’s free hand before he could disappear. He hesitated, trying to piece together everything that he wanted to say and get it out before he changed his mind. When he finally opened his mouth to speak, he had no control over how it all came tumbling out. _

_ “I like you,” Keith blurted out. “A lot. Both of you. I don’t. . . I don’t know if that freaks you out, or if it would even work, but I want to be. . . something. . . with you. I don’t know what that something is, but you make me feel like I’m wanted. Like I exist beyond being some fighting machine. I’ve never felt more at peace than I do when I’m with you guys. I’m sorry, I just. . . want to be closer to you.” _

_ Hunk laughed, quieting Keith’s outburst with the tips of his fingers placed over his mouth. “Okay, okay. I get it. Just calm down and breathe.” Keith sucked in a breath that he didn’t realize he needed.  _

_ “Due to Lance’s current condition,” Hunk paused as Lance snorted loudly, resting his head on the mattress and gazing blithely up at Keith, “I’m going to answer for both of us and say that we actually feel the same.”  _

_ Hunk removed the hand from his mouth, but Keith found himself utterly speechless. _

_ “We don’t have to figure anything out right now,” Hunk continued while Lance nodded in agreement, “but trust me, Lance and I have talked about the possibility. We can figure it out.” _

_ “Can I. . .” Keith began, pausing to clear his throat. “Can I kiss you, too?” _

_ Hunk leaned in, pulling Keith closer with a hand beneath his chin, and placed a light kiss on his forehead.  _

_ Keith frowned. _

_ “You’re kinda messed up right now, dude,” Hunk laughed again, ruffling his hair affectionately. “If you still want to tomorrow, then yes.” _

_ Keith picked up Hunk’s hand, turning it over to press his lips against his palm, “I definitely will.” _

 

Keith opened his eyes slowly, the world appearing fuzzy for a moment before the medical bay came into view. Multiple sets of eyes peered at him as the glass slid away and he stumbled out of the pod. An arm caught him before he hit the ground, allowing him to steady his wobbling legs. 

“Welcome back,” Lance said coolly, unable to hide the relief in his eyes. Keith nodded, grip tightening on Lance’s arm for a split second before letting go.

“How do you feel?” Shiro questioned, concern clear in his words. Keith took quick assessment of his injuries, taking a deep breath and stretching out his limbs. Other than a bit of soreness in his right shoulder, everything was in proper working order.

“I’m good,” Keith nodded, satisfied with the result.

“You definitely look better than you did yesterday,” Lance smirked. “At least  _ I _ was still conscious when we got back.”

“If I remember correctly,” Keith rolled his eyes, “Hunk had to  _ carry _ you all the way across an enemy battleship, so I don’t want to hear it.” 

Wait a second. Keith looked around, ignoring whatever comeback Lance had rattled off. Lance, Shiro, Pidge, Allura. . . 

“Where’s Hunk?” Keith said a bit too loud, not even attempting to keep the panic out of his voice.

“Don’t worry,” Pidge reassured. “He got out of his healing pod a few hours ago.”

“Which I urged him not to,” Allura added, crossing her arms. “He was clearly still exhausted and could use at least another varga, but he insisted on making sure you were going to be alright.”

“C’mon,” Lance nodded towards the door to the connected infirmary. “I convinced him to take a rest, so hopefully he’s napping.”

After a quick change into his normal clothes, Keith followed Lance into the room that they used for treating minor injuries and found Hunk fast asleep on one of the beds. He sighed in relief. 

Lance pulled up a chair beside the bed, and Keith took the time to look him over. He wasn’t wearing his jacket, so Keith got a good look at his arms. He remembered the sight of those burns etched into his skin, but there was no trace of the injuries left. It was as if it hadn’t even happened. 

“Lance,” Keith spoke softly, waiting until Lance regarded him with tired eyes before continuing, “What did they do to you?”

A look of distress crossed Lance’s face, and Keith nearly took the question back before he responded, “I gave them more trouble than they were expecting, I guess. I might’ve pissed off the guy who was in charge of getting information from me.” He crossed his arms in front of his chest and subconsciously rubbed at a spot on his bicep. “But really, it’s nothing that I can’t handle.”

Keith didn’t believe him, but decided not to push the subject. He had many other questions he could focus on. “How did we make it back to the castle?”

“It was the red lion,” Lance answered with a smile. “You weren’t even conscious and she just brought us back to Allura’s wormhole on her own.”

Keith felt a surge of pride for Red, glad that he had built such a strong connection with his lion. He recalled hearing soothing words in his head before he had passed out. That  _ had _ to be her. Keith had no idea what that meant, but he figured he could question Allura about it later.

“What about Blue?”

“She reactivated shortly after you shot everyone into space,” Lance replied. “There was something on the ship that was keeping her immobilized as long as she was in the hangar. She followed Red as soon as she could move again.” He paused, a sigh of relief escaping his lips, “I don’t know what I would’ve done if we had left her, so thanks, I guess, for shooting us all into space.

“But also,” Lance continued, turning back to Keith with a sincerity that he had never seen before, “thank you for coming after me.”

“It wasn’t even a question,” Keith assured, “You would’ve done the same for me.”

“Well,” Lance said, sliding into a mischievous grin. “I don’t know about  _ that _ .” 

Without warning, a hand reached up from the bed and flicked Lance in the forehead, causing him to yelp in surprise. “Don’t lie to him,” Hunk snorted, shifting into a sitting position. “You know you would have.”

“Hunk! You’re okay!” Keith exclaimed, moving to sit on the edge of the bed.

“Yup,” Hunk confirmed, stretching his arms above his head. “Glad to see that you’re back on your feet. You were in the pod for so long, I was starting to get worried.”

“He’s playing it down,” Lance laughed, “I think ‘irate’ is definitely a better descriptor.”

“Right, and you weren’t?”

“Hey, I had to wait for  _ both _ of you to finish healing up. I’m allowed a bit of leeway.” 

Keith felt a burst of affection in his chest as they settled into a more jovial attitude. They made it out alive, and they did it together. Keith felt that the experience had brought them even closer than they were before, which brought up another topic altogether.

“Hey, guys?” Keith started, not entirely sure what to say. 

“Do you want to talk about it now?” Hunk asked, making a wide gesture at the three of them. 

Keith nodded, glad that Hunk understood. “I remember what happened that night.”

“How much of it?” Lance piped in.

“All of it,” Keith replied, heat growing on his ears and cheeks, “and. . . I meant what I said. I want to be with you, both of you. I don’t know how it would work, but. . . I want to try.”

“Well,” Hunk replied, reaching out to take one of Keith’s hands in his while Lance took the other, “I think we can work with that.”

“Definitely,” Lance nodded earnestly, “and we don’t need to completely figure it out right now, so there’s no pressure.” 

Keith felt a weight lift off his chest. He wasn’t entirely sure what he wanted, but it appeared as if Hunk and Lance were willing to wait it out with him. He squeezed both of their hands in gratitude and felt his heart skip a beat when they both squeezed back. 

“Also,” Lance smirked, wiggling his brows, “the added bonus of kissing is always a perk that I am willing to take advantage of.”

Keith snorted, pulling Lance towards him until they were mere inches apart, his breath ghosting across Lance’s skin. “Good to know.” 

Their second kiss was far more memorable but no less sweet. Lance sighed, parting his lips softly, slowly. Keith took the invitation to deepen the kiss, one hand pressed against Lance’s chest to feel the way his heart pounded beneath his ribcage. Suddenly, it was over, Keith pulling away with a grin. Lance leaned in once, twice to place quick kisses on Keith’s skin, eliciting a small bout of laughter. Hunk chuckled, staring back at them with affection and no small amount of love.

“Hunk,” Keith murmured, shifting on the bed to bring himself closer to him. “Can I?”

Hunk placed a hand under Keith’s chin, drawing him closer in a way that felt extremely familiar. “Of course.” 

Keith melted into the kiss, Hunk wrapping his arms around him and enveloping him in a comforting warmth. Hunk hummed in content, a hand gently moving down Keith’s spine. He smiled into the kiss, complying in earnest when Keith pushed to intensify the way their lips moved together. 

“I think I can definitely get used to this,” Keith said with a sigh after finally pulling away. Hunk let out a loud laugh, running a hand through Keith’s hair. 

“Agreed,” Lance replied with a smirk. 

Keith beamed, finding comfort in their smiles and realizing that there was no doubt that they could figure this out. As long as they did it together. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My partners for [ The Primary Big Bang](http://voltronbigbang.tumblr.com/): 
> 
> Artists  
> [Sting ](http://stingdragon.tumblr.com)  
> [Hayden ](http://6oys.tumblr.com)
> 
> Beta  
> [Ry ](http://Arkcry.tumblr.com)


	11. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Needless to say, they figure it out eventually. 
> 
> Thank you for reading! ~<3

Keith closed his eyes, leaning back into the body beneath him with a sigh. 

“You’re thinking about something,” Hunk murmured low into his ear. Of course, leave it to Hunk to know exactly when something was on his mind. 

“When all of this is over,” Keith spoke quietly, glancing up at the passing stars above them, “When Zarkon is no longer a threat, and we can all go back to Earth. . .”

“You’re wondering if we would still be together,” Lance finished for him, peering up at him from where his head rested near Keith’s stomach.

“Yeah.”

“You sound like Lance,” Hunk chuckled, pausing to kiss Keith softly on the temple. “He asked the same thing once when we were on vacation with my family.”

“Yeah?” Keith whispered as Hunk started to trail lingering kisses down his neck.

“Mmhm. I’ll tell you the same thing I told him,” Hunk bit down softly, eliciting a soft moan to escape from Keith’s lips. “There’s nothing temporary about how I feel about you. . . how WE feel about you. Home won’t change that because. . .”

“Home exists as long as we’re together,” Lance interjected with a fond smile. “Now, enough of that. This is hardly the time.” 

Keith gasped sharply as Lance dug his nails into his thighs, nosing along the junction of his hip and leaving kiss marks in his wake. Hunk ran his hands down Keith’s chest, distracting him with a deep, searing kiss while Lance worked his fingers inside him. 

“Ah!” Keith nearly forgot how to breathe when Lance ran a tongue down his arousal, sending his senses into overdrive. Hunk continued his assault on Keith's neck, biting back a harsh moan when Keith ground down into his lap. 

“Hunk,” Keith whispered, breath coming out in short pants, “please?”

He didn't have to say anything more as Lance stilled his fingers, crawling up Keith’s body to plant a fervent kiss on his lips. Hunk pushed up on Keith’s hips gently, waiting for him to comply with his silent request. Keith lifted himself just enough to sink down on Hunk with a soft catch of breath, fingernails digging into Lance’s shoulders. 

Their movement was slightly erratic, Hunk setting the pace with a combination of deep and shallow thrusts. Lance worked his hand along both his and Keith’s flushed erections, swallowing Hunk’s heady groans with an eager kiss and nipping at the pink flesh of his bottom lip. 

Keith wrapped his arms around Lance’s torso, letting out a guttural cry as the heat pooling in the pit of his stomach released into the other’s hand. Lance was soon to follow, groaning out an expletive under his breath. 

Keith collapsed back against Hunk’s chest, a breathy sound of satisfaction rolling off his tongue. Hunk chuckled, nosing at a spot on Keith's neck and eliciting a short burst of laughter. 

“You doing okay?” Hunk asked, breath still lingering on his skin. Keith nodded. “I'm gonna move you now, okay?” Another nod. Hunk lifted Keith by the hips, pulling out with a slick sound and settling Keith beside him on the pillows. Lance wasted no time, kneeling between Hunk’s thighs and sinking his lips down on his still hard cock. Hunk’s breath hitched at the contact, fingers digging into Lance’s scalp. Keith leaned against his side, content to watch while Lance’s head bobbed up and down, nails digging into the flesh of Hunk’s hips. Hunk came with a strangled gasp, covering his mouth with a hand to quiet any sounds that he might make. 

Lance grinned, resting his head on Hunk’s stomach while he watched him catch his breath. It didn’t matter how many times they did this, Keith could never get over the way that Lance gazed at Hunk with such adoration whenever he was rendered breathless. Keith wondered if either of them looked at him the same. He didn’t doubt it. 

“You’re sticky,” Hunk commented, finally remembering how to breath properly.

“And who’s fault is that?” Lance asked in mock shock. 

“You know,” Keith snorted, “we should’ve thought about how we’re going to clean up before we decided to do this in the observatory.” 

“C’mon,” Lance got up, tossing a blanket at Keith. “There are showers just down the hall. We just gotta hope that no one decides to wander this way.”

Keith laughed, wrapping himself in the blanket and allowing Hunk to pull him to his feet. 

_ Home exists as long as we’re together, huh? _ Keith thought to himself. Warmth flooded through his body as he realized without a doubt that this was the best home that he had ever known.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My partners for [ The Primary Big Bang](http://voltronbigbang.tumblr.com/): 
> 
> Artists  
> [Sting ](http://stingdragon.tumblr.com)  
> [Hayden ](http://6oys.tumblr.com)
> 
> Beta  
> [Ry ](http://Arkcry.tumblr.com)


End file.
